Stampin' Ground Coffee
Country Boy Brewing

 

 

The base "Stampin' Ground" stout seems to bee Country Boy's favorite standard offering to experiment with. Nitro, bourbon barrel, raspberries, and now coffee play into the fold for unique flavors from the same fundamental recipe.

Looking exactly like the standard Stampin' Ground, the beer is dark "bark" brown and carries a firm haze. A delicate creme of foam rises to top the beer with a head that slowly reduces to a necklace around the glass with spotty lace left behind. It's a bold look with cask ale-like demeanor.

Medium coffee aromas are accompanied by bitter chocolate, burnt caramel, and a light campfire tone. Light citrus, earth, and woods weave into the coffee focus for added complexity from hops.

Its bold coffee taste leads the charge, but doesn't upset the firm balance of the regular Stampin' Ground. Nutty Columbian blends, Kona, and Arabica coffee beans are earthy, nutty, and somewhat chicory-like as the coffeehouse taste commences. Burnt caramel supports the coffee and balances against the woodish hops that build complexity and offsets the hop and coffee bitterness. It's a bold taste that celebrates coffee undertow, albeit in gentlemanly understated attitudes.

Rich and delicate, the textures of both Stout and coffee play out on the early palate. But the receding sweetness and fading carbonation introduces a lighter and highly drinkable middle. Its dry toasty finish is mildly warm with alcohol and allows for a coffee-infused roasty-dry aftertaste.

This is a great change-up to throw into the rotation. But the coffee taste is mild. If I hadn't been familiar with the base beer and was just given this one, I would have certainly noticed a protruding coffee taste but I would have assumed that it was malt derived and not inherently a spice addition.